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| A detail of Coal Aston Primitive Methodist Church |
A very busy July 2023 came to an end with a brief exploration of Tickhill, where the time spent travelling on 2 buses and a train each way from Treeton via Sheffield and Doncaster was considerably longer than the 3 hours actually spent exploring this historic market town.
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| Listed Buildings in Coal Aston |
Moving into August, my next day out was prompted by my discovery of Coal Aston Primitive Methodist Church (1866) during an internet search. Although not listed, I thought that it was a very interesting building and, having entered its postcode in the British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, 6 buildings were highlighted in Coal Aston with another 15 in Dronfield and I thought that this was perfect for a good walk of about 8 kilometres.
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| Coal Aston Primitive Methodist Church |
Alighting from the No. 44 bus outside the church, I crossed over Eckington Road to take a few photographs of the front south facing elevation, which has bold rustication to the quoins, the main door surround, pilasters and the arch in the dentillated pediment.
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| The pediment at Coal Aston Primitive Methodist Church |
It was designed by the architect James Kerridge, from Wisbech, who I had never heard of but have since learned was also responsible for Primitive Methodist Chapels in Mosborough, Sheffield, Parkgate, Rawmarsh and Chesterfield.
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| Victorian houses on Eckington Road |
I didn’t closely examine the stonework but, looking at my photos, it is a massive medium grained sandstone that is generally light brown in colour, but with a moderately high iron content that can give it distinctly orange colour in places and the development of Liesegang rings.
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| Various houses on Stone Road |
The Victorian houses on either side of the chapel have similar colour variation and it is quite probable that the local Silkstone Rock that has been used for these and other houses that I saw as I walked up the escarpment along Stone Road.
The first listed building to photograph on Stone Close was the range of converted farm outbuildings to the east of Silkstone Farmhouse, which have an L-shaped plan and date back to the late C18 but are only listed for their group value.
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| Outbuildings to the east of Silkstone Farmhouse |
Silkstone Farmhouse itself dates to the early C17, with mullioned windows typical of this period being seen on the front elevation, but there have been alterations in the C16 and C19, but I just took basic record photographs of each visible elevation, before returning to Eckington Road.
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| Silkstone Farmhouse |
Continuing to the roundabout, the escarpment of the Silkstone Rock is quite obvious and before walking up the hill, I stopped to photograph the mid C18/early C19 farm buildings and the adjacent Norwood Farmhouse, which are both Grade II Listed but have no great architectural merit.
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| Norwood Farmhouse (R) and adjacent farm buildings |
This range of buildings provide another example of locally quarried sandstone, with stone slate roofs, and a little further up Eckington Road, the mid C17 Nos. 14-16 are built with similar materials, with massive sandstone used for dressings to the windows, which have had all of their mullions removed.
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| Nos. 14-16 Eckington Road |
Looking at the 1898 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey map, extensive drift mining of coal in the area had led to the formation of quite a substantial settlement and all of the buildings that I had encountered so far are all within Coal Aston Conservation Area, whose western boundary is on Eckington Road.
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| The 1898 Ordnance Survey map of Coal Aston |
Turning down Brown Lane, Coal Aston war memorial is set on a small triangular green where it meets Cross Lane, which gives the impression that this forms the centre of the old village, where there a mixture of residential and agricultural buildings are scattered randomly around the area.
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| Coal Aston war memorial |
Returning to the main road along Cross Lane, I was interested to see a very simple Wesleyan Reform Church (1848), which is built with the same iron stained sandstone as the rest of the historic buildings in the village, but the quoins and the kneelers look like Derbyshire gritstone.
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| The Wesleyan Reform Church on Cross Lane |
On the other side of the road is the Grade II* Listed Aston End, which Historic England describes as “Medieval, with additions and alterations in C16, C17 and C19. Coursed rubble coal measures sandstone with quoins, plain gables, gable and ridge brick stacks and a stone slated roof”.
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| A view of Aston End |
I could only get glimpses of the house, from whatever viewpoint I tried, and just took a few quick snaps before I continued along Cross Lane to the brow of the escarpment, where Eckington Road turns into Green Lane.
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| An old agricultural building on Green Lane |
Setting off down Green Lane, which forms the dip slope of the Silkstone Rock on the northern limb of the Dronfield Syncline, I was quite surprised to discover that Coal Aston forms a relative high point and during the 1.25 km walk down Green Lane to the River Drone, I descended from an elevation of 201 m to 127 m.
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| A topographic map of Coal Aston |
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